Hard work ahead for Parreira

NEW Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira now knows how hard he will have to work to earn his massive R1,8 million per month salary.

Parreira, a spectator at the FNB Stadium on Saturday where Bafana were held to a dull 0-0 draw against ultra defensive Congo, saw first hand why the SA Football Association are throwing money at him to revive the ailing goal-shy national side. Bafana players won a pay demand before the match: they would have earned R60 000 had they won instead of R50 000.They each collected R30 000 for the draw.The players will also share R10 million to qualify for the Nations Cup in Ghana in 2008.However, before they can earn the riches they have to start playing and scoring goals.What also must have worried the Brazilian coach was the stay-away of fans.About 6 000 turned up to support the national side.The former Brazil World Cup coach put on a brave face when he met the SA media for the first time after the game.But he refused to allow questions, simply giving his opinion of the match.Parreira said he had studied results between the two countries and said: “As expected it was a tight match given the history between the two countries.”Parreira said Congo had come for a point and closed down the spaces for Bafana to play in.He said Bafana should have won.”It is important to win at home.But this is the first qualification match and the group is still wide open.Maybe Congo will adopt a different attitude when we play the return leg in Congo.”Maybe they will come more forward and that will give us a chance to attack.We simply could not break them down despite putting them under a lot of pressure in the last 15 minutes.Maybe we should have applied that pressure from the beginning.”SupersoccerBafana players won a pay demand before the match: they would have earned R60 000 had they won instead of R50 000.They each collected R30 000 for the draw.The players will also share R10 million to qualify for the Nations Cup in Ghana in 2008.However, before they can earn the riches they have to start playing and scoring goals.What also must have worried the Brazilian coach was the stay-away of fans.About 6 000 turned up to support the national side.The former Brazil World Cup coach put on a brave face when he met the SA media for the first time after the game.But he refused to allow questions, simply giving his opinion of the match.Parreira said he had studied results between the two countries and said: “As expected it was a tight match given the history between the two countries.”Parreira said Congo had come for a point and closed down the spaces for Bafana to play in.He said Bafana should have won.”It is important to win at home.But this is the first qualification match and the group is still wide open.Maybe Congo will adopt a different attitude when we play the return leg in Congo.”Maybe they will come more forward and that will give us a chance to attack.We simply could not break them down despite putting them under a lot of pressure in the last 15 minutes.Maybe we should have applied that pressure from the beginning.”Supersoccer

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